Yoruba (èdè Yorùbá)

Yoruba is one of the four official languages of Nigeria and is
a member of the Volta-Niger branch of the Niger-Congo family of languages.
It is spoken by about 22 million people in southwest Nigeria, Benin,
Togo, the UK, Brazil and the USA.

Yoruba first appeared in writing during the 19th century. The first
Yoruba publications were a number of teaching booklets produced by
John Raban in 1830-2. The person who made the biggest contribution to Yoruba
literacy was Bishop Ajayi (Samual) Crowther (1806-1891), who studied many of the
languages of Nigeria, including Yoruba, and wrote and translated in
some of them. Crowther was also the first Christian bishop of West African origin.
A Yoruba orthography appeared in about 1850, though it has undergone
a number of changes since then.

The Yoruba alphabet (Alufabẹẹti/ABD Yorùbá)

Yoruba is a tonal language with three tones: high, mid and low.
The high tone is indicated by an acute accent (á,
é, ẹ́, í, ó, ọ́ and ú).
The mid tone is not marked and the low tone is marked with a grave acute
(à, è, ẹ̀, ì, ò,
ọ̀ and ù).

Numbers

ọkan / mení

méjì

mẹta

mẹrin

màrún

mẹfà

méje

mẹjọ

mẹsan

mẹwa

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

èkíní

èkejì

ẹkẹta

ẹkẹrin

èkarùn

ẹkẹfà

èkeje

ẹkẹjọ

ẹkẹsàn

ẹkẹwà

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

Sample text

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)